Welcome to the Healing Hands Personal Retreat!

Reawaken a sense of peace and wholeness

I hope you will experience the warmth, healing and hope that I felt when creating the Healing Hands Project. I am so grateful to learn from these healers and to explore their wisdom by creating these materials.

About the Retreat

This retreat is a multi-media journey that encourages you to see healing as an art form and to explore ways to become the artist of your own life.

I offer it as a supportive space to contemplate how to nurture inner resilience and calm.

Overview

Morning: Your personal retreat begins with a simple opening ritual to mark the day as special and intentional. Next, you’ll journal for a few minutes reflecting on your reasons for dedicating this time to yourself and identifying areas where you would like more inspiration or healing.

Next, you’ll watch the Healing Hands film, first taking a moment to consider what “becoming the artist of your own life”means to you. After the film, you’ll journal again capturing your immediate impressions of the film and then respond to the journal prompts that you find most relevant or revealing.

Lunch or Snack: Following a nourishing meal or snack, you’ll give yourself time to relax and contemplate maybe by sitting outside or meditating to the sound healer’s music.

Afternoon: You’ll watch Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor before engaging in some gentle movement or energy work, such as a walk, yoga or Qi Gong to refresh your body and mind. Next, you’ll create a meaningful keepsake necklace incorporating your personal intentions into handmade paper beads. This creative practice is a tangible way to engage with your wishes for restoration and healing..

As the retreat continues, you’ll center and calm guided by the film meditation A Walk in the Woods. Finally, you’ll end the retreat with a closing reflection and ritual. This marks the transition from your retreat back to daily life, helping you carry forward the sense of peace and awareness you’ve gained.

Contents of the Retreat Kit

Healing Hands Film
Retreat Agenda
A Walk in the Woods film meditation. This link (also on the original pdf you received with your purchase) will continue to be available to you. Please feel free to return to it whenever you feel the need to center and calm.
Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor Many people asked for content from the healers that didn’t make the final cut of the film. Here is more wisdom!
Healing Hands Jewelry instructions and links to an easy interactive project to craft a beautiful necklace/bracelet/hanging charm that incorporates your intentions for healing
Journal Prompts based on the healer’s observations and wisdom.
Soothing Sound Loop of the Sound Healer’s music featured in the film to create a space for contemplation and reflection.
Set-up suggestions for the retreat space and ways to personalize the retreat

Retreat Agenda- Approximately four and a half hours

Please feel free to use the films and activities in the way that best suits your needs, interests and personal schedule. You may wish to build in extra time for additional activities or divide the retreat into 2 or 3 shorter sessions. Also, please read “Setting up the Retreat Space” and “Ways to Personalize the Retreat” before you begin.

10:00-10:20 Opening

After taking a few centering breaths, you may wish to open and close the retreat with a short ritual. It can be as simple as reading a poem, singing a song or chanting a phrase. You may also wish to light a candle.

A ritual practice is a gentle way to mark the retreat space as sacred and to create a tone for all that follows. It recognizes the beauty and uniqueness of this particular experience on this particular day.

You could journal about why you chose to participate in the retreat or if there is an area of your life where you would like more energy, inspiration or healing.

**10:20-11:00 Watch Healing Hands Film**

Before you start the film, please reflect on what “becoming the artist of your own life” means to you. Note any ideas that pop up.

11:00- 11:30 Journaling

First, take a few minutes to write about your immediate impressions from the film. Often, those first intuitive responses are potent realizations. Then, look at these journal prompts and respond to the ones that seem to be personally relevant or fertile areas for reflection.

11:30-12:30 Meal/Snack and Contemplative Time

A meal or snack break is usually needed at this point in the retreat. Also, a retreat should feel relaxed and expansive, so extra time for contemplation is valuable. After eating, you may wish to sit outside to give your body a break from reading, writing and watching videos. Or you may choose to spend some time meditating with the sound healer’s music playing quietly in the background.

12:30-12:40 Watch Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor

Take a few minutes to see a few scenes that didn’t make it into the film.

12:40-1:20 Movement or Energy Work

If you are physically able, take a refreshing walk, do yoga or engage in energy work (Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Reiki, Healing Touch) outside if possible. Numerous studies have confirmed the restorative power of nature. If the weather is not appropriate for an outdoor excursion, you may wish to engage in some gentle movement inside while you play the sound healer’s music quietly in the background.

1:20-1:50 Creative Craft

You can make the necklace/bracelet/hanging charm in the Healing Hands Jewelry Kit or another craft project of your choice.

Assembly of the jewelry kits is quick and fairly easy. The most meaningful part of this craft project is the creation of paper beads.

In the Healing Hands film, the massage therapist, Katrina, wrote an intention that was hidden and sealed into the hollow clay hand sculpture. Similarly, each paper bead will contain your own secret prayer or wish. Paper beads are easy to make following this step- by-step guide.

The paper beads are strung onto the necklace along with the glass beads and the hand-crafted charm provided in the kit. I worked with a local, independent jewelry maker to assemble the kit. She crafts each charm by hand.

Other craft options could include mixing a personal tea blend from bulk herbs or using essential oils to craft a unique fragrance, Another idea is to make scented bath salts and to finish the retreat with a relaxing soak. And of course, you can combine these ideas and do more than one project. Be creative and have fun!

**1:50-2:10 A Walk in the Woods Film Meditation**

This is a creative visualization exercise that was filmed in the same woods, fields, streams and ponds as the Healing Hands film. This meditation will remain available to you after the retreat to return to whenever you feel the need to center and calm. The link is included in the pdf you received when you purchased the retreat.

2:10-2:30 Closing Reflection and Ritual

To mark the end of the retreat, it is valuable to journal about any insights or ideas that have surfaced. Your writing could be an open-ended check- in or you could ask yourself what you want to bring forward or focus on as you move “out into the world”.

A closing ritual mirrors the opening ritual and ceremonially ends the retreat time. This may include a reading, song, chant or even meditative silence.

You have given yourself the well-deserved gift of renewal. I hope you found clarity, calm and a sense of well-being.

Setting up the Retreat Space

If there is ample room, you may wish to designate areas for specific activities. For example, you may want to meditate to the sound healer's music in an area designated for contemplation. And you may want to assemble all the craft materials beforehand in a “creative zone”, so that you can move easily to that activity without breaking the flow of the retreat.

However, all the retreat activities can be easily accommodated within a limited space. It is important that the space be relatively free from distractions and that it feels welcoming.

Bringing an element of nature into the retreat space can be refreshing and inspiring. During the winter, some evergreen boughs or a flourishing houseplant can provide a reminder of our connection to nature. And during the warmer months, you might display a bouquet of seasonal flowers.

If your retreat will span a meal, it is good to either prepare the food beforehand or incorporate meal prep as a meditative activity within the retreat.

When showing the film, you will need a good internet connection. I recommend that you view the film on the largest screen possible. A phone will do in a pinch, but the larger the screen, the more enveloping and cinematic the experience.

Ways to Personalize the Retreat

You may wish to create an altar or shrine for your retreat. I invite you to be as simple or elaborate as you wish. The altar does not need to focus on a deity, but may be an ode to nature with rocks, shells and crystals. Or it may be adorned with photos, books, or mementos. Choose whatever you find inspiring or uplifting.

Having a warm beverage handy can feel comforting. Picking a new blend of tea or a different snack just for this time can make the retreat feel special.

When you are setting up the schedule for the retreat, you may wish to incorporate an appointment for energy work, acupuncture, massage or a yoga class.

A way to extend the potency of the retreat is to review your journal notes after a few days. Sometimes realizations come to you that were not apparent during the retreat.

The retreat centers around the idea that you are the artist of your own life. Please think of this retreat as a big box of vibrant paint. Design the retreat that is most healing and meaningful to you.